Scores Killed in Hyderabad, India Blasts

At least 20 people were killed and more than 50 wounded when bombs ripped through a crowded suburb of the Indian city of Hyderabad on Thursday in what police called an act of terrorism.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh vowed punishment of those responsible for the “dastardly act”, which came with the nation on alert after the recent hanging of a separatist unleashed protests in the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.

The bombs targeted a mainly Hindu district in Hyderabad, a southern hub of India’s computing industry which has a large Muslim population. The Australian and Indian cricket teams are due to play there in a match starting on March 2.

Doctors struggled to treat a stream of wounded victims as bloodied patients lay on stretchers at nearby hospitals and anguished relatives clamoured for news of their loved ones, an AFP photographer saw.

At least two devices went off in the evening explosions, and bomb-disposal experts were trying to defuse three more unexploded devices, police said.

“This is a terror attack for sure,” Hyderabad deputy inspector of police Shiv Kumar told AFP, while adding there had been no claim of responsibility.

Here is some of the first footage. It’s grainy, but paints a very ugly scene of destruction.